FC: UK regulator wants to create new Web addresses; China CEO intv

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34937,00.html

                       UK Wants Tighter E-Trading Laws
                       by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                       3:00 a.m. 14.Mar.2000 PST
                       FAIRFAX, Virginia -- It's not that Phillip
                       Thorpe hates the Internet, not exactly.
                       But he sure wishes the problems it causes
                       him would vanish as quickly as Bill
                       Bradley's presidential ambitions.

                       Thorpe has one of the most difficult jobs
                       anyone can hold nowadays: He's a
                       regulator. And not just any regulator, but
                       the head of the British agency responsible
                       for overseeing the financial services and
                       securities industries.

                       In the U.K., London-based Financial
                       Services Authority can shut down any
                       unacceptable Web site that doesn't
                       follow British law, but the agency's reach
                       is limited.

                       Thorpe is concerned that British subjects
                       can connect to any Web site anywhere in
                       the world to deposit money or spend their
                       cash on risky -- though perhaps
                       profitable, and probably unregulated -
                       ventures. There's precious little Thorpe or
                       his FSA cohorts can do about it.

                      ...

                       Thorpe said a third possibility would be to
                       devise a new Web address for approved
                       finance and investment sites that would
                       look like finance://www.bankname.com/.

                       He said it would be a "specific kind of URL
                       for regulated financial entities, though we
                       know there are people we have to ask
                       about that."

                       ...




http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34916,00.html

                       AOL Envy
                       by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                       3:00 a.m. 14.Mar.2000 PST
                       FAIRFAX, Virginia -- Charles Zhang wants
                       to be China's equivalent of Steve Case.

                       The 35-year-old entrepreneur envisions
                       his company's portal, sohu.com, becoming
                       as synonymous with the Internet in the
                       world's most populous country as America
                       Online is in the world's most wired
                       country.

                       "I've always admired Steve Case," said
                       Zhang, an MIT graduate who lives in
                       Bejing. "Through all these years, when
                       AOL is up and down and people predict
                       AOL is going to fail, AOL is now king of
                       the hill."

                       ...

                       For one thing, the Chinese government
                       isn't exactly known for its love of the
                       Internet and Western influences like
                       erotica -- or anything critical of Beijing.

                       ...



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